Sunday, April 28, 2013

Joe has his own business installing commercial doors and windows, and Melissa spends her days with our three kids, who have never been to school. Mary is now 7, Joey is 4, and Lily is 2.

Joe and I were at the ALL Unschooling Symposium in Albuquerque in December 2011 and loved it. We've also been to one local homeschooling conference in Wisconsin in May 2012. This is our first homeschooling conference we are attending as a family, and we are all pretty excited about it. The kids are especially looking forward to playing in the water park and playing Minecraft with new friends!

Family Picture from November 2012:

Melissa and Lily at my sister's Pakistani Wedding in England; January 2013

Sequence of photos of Joe and Lily making Lily's signature faces (also at the Pakistani Wedding in January 2013): "Angry", "Happy", "Surprised", and "Silly"

Mary at her 7th birthday party, February 2013, with a Monster High birthday cake created by Joe:

Joey at the Space Needle in Seattle, February 2013:

Looking forward to spending time with everyone in a few days!
The Yatzeck Family

I (Eileen) and Felix are excited to travel together to join you in Minnesota. My husband George grew up in Illinois (suburb of Chicago) and I in Massachusetts. Our family resides in Northboro Massachusetts (40 minutes from Boston)

Both of Felix's grandparents grew up in Minneapolis.
Felix asked me last night where his grandpa was buried and I will look into the possibility of visiting his grave.

This is a special trip for Felix and I as I can't recall many events that he and I have ventured alone. We are a family of 5. My husband of almost 23 yrs and our fraternal 10 yo twin daughters will stay home this trip. It is unusual for Felix and I to spend this one on one time together and it is a great gift for me to experience with him.

Felix attended a few years of preschool as my twin pregnancy slowed me down and he sped up as a 2 1/2 yo toddler. That was nearly 11 yrs ago and we as a family and as individuals have grown so much.

At nearly 47 I am finally beginning to get grey hair! lol (sorry but it's so new I'm trying to still realize it!) I am ever grateful for my wonderful husband who trusts my judgement and sponsors my dreams. George's genetics had him grey in his early 30's so for him this is not a realization of middle age! (he's turning 50)
I have known the preciousness of life from a young age. It goes by quick!

I understand how Radical Unschooling can work in preserving inherent qualities of learning and developing as whole individuals. These are things I wish for my family and with the incredible work of people like Joyce Fetteroll and Sandra Dodd I have been able to live my life with my family with more joy and a more open sense of possibilities of who we are and what we do.

We began our journey by gently keeping Felix home from kindergarten as we grew and recovered from a twin birth and toddlerhood. I have always been exhilarated in learning and to be among these fine people in my immediate family is an honor and privilege.

I have a deep sense of gratitude to Joyce Fetteroll as I fell upon her work online as I kept my son out of public school. Her writing on joyful living gave back to me the gift that had begun to deteriorate under societal norms for parenting. Sandra's work has provided me material to synthesize a way of living conducive to preserving my relationships with my husband and my children. I am intrigued by Sandra's work and have gleaned her words for 5 years or more. Her ideas and those she spurs and collects have helped me be a better parent and spouse.

My kids have all learned to read and write naturally without formal practice.

Felix is a full time gamer and has many friends online. He enjoys hosting & traveling to see friends who live at a distance. Felix loves geography. He has recently enjoyed hunting with his dad. Felix has expressed aspirations for selling his many collections of beloved Bionicles and Lego sets on eBay. I suggested that Felix may want to learn some gaming via his laptop among others at the conference and he felt his time would be better spent meeting new people while there! =)

I have a meditation practice, enjoy the Internet, love playing and learning with my kids, walking & talking with my husband, hosting kids & families for play, cooking, cleaning, reading, yoga and the outdoors. I play with Feng Shei and take care of my house plants, outdoor garden and our 2 bunnies and adopted chinchilla. Can you tell I'm a nurturer.

Looking forward to our adventure and mini vacation among Unschoolers. See you soon!

Monday, April 22, 2013

Hello from Duluth! Living in northern MN, we feel lucky to be able to enjoy both city life and wilderness fun, as both are close by. Alexander (15) has never been to school, and we’ve been on the unschooling path for many years now.

Deanna’s former life included working as a speech/language therapist and a massage/bodywork therapist. Her current life includes exploring with Alexander & husband John, cooking, gardening, knitting, hiking, and a bit of yoga. An information junkie, books and her iPad are often close by.

Alexander has long enjoyed gaming and has met some truly awesome friends on the Unschooling Gamers group. He dove deep into computers & programming this past year, working a 6-week internship at a local computer shop, and amassing components for building his own computer. One of his biggest passions is the Melbourne Shuffle, a dance form that has brought him contacts from a wide variety of places and some cool background on the history & sub-genres of electronica music; he looks forward to meeting up with some other shufflers and dancin’ till dawn at the Anime Detour Con again this year. (Yep, manga and anime have been long-time passions, as well.)

We will be joined by Kevin, a gaming buddy from CA. His bio states: “I’m Scooty McGee, I mean Kevin. I did ballroom dance for two years. I’m also into gaming, and stand up/improv comedy.”

Rodney (50), Andrew (14), and I (Glenda, 47) will be driving from west-central Texas to the symposium. Although Rodney’s been to Minnesota several times for business, this will be Andrew’s and my first trip to the northern part of the U.S., and our first long driving-trip as a family. It will also be our first time to meet up in person with other unschoolers, including friends Andrew and I have made over the years via several unschooling lists. It will certainly be a trip full of many “firsts,” which is quite exciting!!

Andrew has always been homeschooled, and we’ve been unschooling, really, from the point at which he would’ve had to enroll in school (age 6, here).

In their bio, Deanna said this about her son, Alexander: “Alexander has long enjoyed gaming and has met some truly awesome friends on the Unschooling Gamers group.” I can say the very same thing about Andrew!! Andrew is looking forward to hanging out with those friends in-person.

In addition to a love for many-things-gaming, Andrew has a passion for participating in plays at our local community theatre (recent productions include “Get Smart,” “Cat in the Hat,” and “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever”) and would like to expand his theatre knowledge to include the technical side of productions. He tried out our local youth bowling league last fall, and looks forward to joining again this fall. Now that he’s between theatre productions, we’re all three ready to blow the dust off our bowling balls and start honing our bowling skills again! We’re also looking forward to his cousins’ schools letting out for the summer, as we enjoy hanging out with them and their parents at the pool….that’s probably the only perk of the triple-digit temps we have during the summer! When Andrew’s looking for some downtime to recharge his batteries, he likes watching YouTube and reading.

Rodney and I both work in the family business, Rodney full-time as a safety/loss-control consultant, and I very part-time as an executive assistant. We are fortunate to have a boss (my mom) who places a huge priority on “family first,” and who is incredibly supportive of allowing us to work our schedules around things such as this trip.

Rodney is a fantastic nature photographer and is looking forward to coming home from this trip with a memory card full of beautiful-scenery photos. He also has a great love of being outdoors, which results in us having a garden for as much of the year as our weather allows! He built a fantastic chicken coop for our (city) backyard a couple summers ago, and is always looking for new ways to capture rainwater (which has been in woefully short supply the past several years).

I currently enjoy doing Zentangle, but was an avid embroiderer for several years before that. (I keep thinking I’ll mash-up the two hobbies, but it hasn’t happened yet.) I love finding new-to-me tv series (“Supernatural” and “Battlestar Gallactica” are current faves, with “Dr. Who,” “Sherlock,” and “Elementary” next up in the queue), reading (favorite series are “Game of Thrones” and “Outlander”), being at the pool in the summer, playing with our dogs, and hanging out with my fellas.

Greetings from the Schad family! We live in the White Bear Lake area of the Twin Cities, Minn. -- Steve, Tracy and two girls Skyler (9 y.o., soon to be 10 on 5/9) and Delaney (6 y.o.). Steve and I will celebrate our 18th anniversary at the end of May.
I'm a former animal shelter worker; my favorite role was that of foster care and breed rescue coordinator. Animal welfare is a part of me. I enjoy reading, photography, and creating arts and crafts (well, more honestly, the idea of doing so; I love my Pinterest boards.) and simply enjoying our tree-nestled home with its large backyard and the small forest backing up to our property.

Steve enjoys history (reading biographies and watching documentaries), art and creating amazing vegetarian dishes for us. He works at Andersen Corp. as a corporate training and development manager. Like me, he loves being awed by natural beauty, and some day soon, we are going to take that love on the road with more traveling and enjoying what the world has to offer.

I first came upon unschooling while reading John Holt's How Children Learn as I rocked a 6-wk-old Skyler. I bought it thinking it was a how-to book; in a way, it was, but of the opposite sort of what I anticipated. Most importantly, It was a happy accident that set us down this path early. As an attachment/peaceful parenting household, it was a natural progression. We prefer doing things as a family and make home our sanctuary, to us and our 8 indoor cats. We are fortunate to live in an area where we can nurture many of our passions and easily meet up with like-minded families, or as least ones we can find commonalities with despite our differences. We enjoy art, board games, field trips, open play and nature outings with our various homeschool friends. The girls and I volunteer together with our local cat shelter.

Skyler's current interests include American Girl dolls, reading, fashion design, horses, drawing, Guinea pigs, dance (currently, tap) and musical theater. Delaney loves Littlest Pet Shop critters, American Girl dolls, cats, dance (currently, ballet and tap), butterflies, swimming and Squinkies. Both of them enjoy playing Club Penguin, Animal Jam and Webkinz, often together, side-by-side on their computers and with on-line friends. They can't wait until the trampoline goes back up outside for the warmer seasons.

We're a more quiet, introspective bunch, but are excited to have this opportunity to spend time with other unschoolers in a relaxed atmosphere.

Hello, my name is Pearl. I’m a 15 year old girl from Wisconsin. I like geology, although I’m fairly new to it and I don’t know that much yet. Still, I have a decently sized rock collection. I play a lot of video games. Recently I’ve been playing a lot of Touhou and Minecraft, and I like to use level editors in games. I also like making necklaces, especially when I can use beads made out of rocks. I have a Tumblr where I post about all of these things. If you’re interested, you can find it here: http://rock-paper-mario.tumblr.com/

I am Cas Stopa. I am 13 years old and live in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. I like playing video games. My favorites are Minecraft, Portal, Ratchet & Clank. My sister, Pearl, and I play Minecraft with each other. I like all kinds of sports. I like to watch football, and play basketball.
I’m a drummer. I’ve played for about 5 years now. I really like Tré Cool, the drummer from Green Day. I’m really into theater. I like to act and have been in 20 shows, playing everything from a mafia godfather to an old wise man from Persia. I really love roles where I can do an accent.

I am Larry Stopa, proud papa of Pearl and Cas. (I like to call him “Mir” which means “Peace.” His full name is Casimir.) I try to stimulate their curiosity however it might work, such as in nature or on computers. I run an online marketing firm. I enjoy biking along the many off-road trails around here and commuting with nature. I play with N-scale trains, and collect football and non-sports cards.

The photo is from our vacation last year in Copper Harbor, MI. as we left on a sunset cruise – Jennie Neary, Pearl, Cas and Larry Stopa.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Hi! We are the Godfreys. Attending the conference are myself (Michelle 43), my 5 year old daughter, Isabel and my 4 year old daughter, Clara. My husband, Ben has to work so he won’t make it this time. I am bringing my sister, Marilyn Anderson and her 15 year old daughter, Marrissa who have recently started to home school.

I decided to homeschool our two girls just after Clara was born. I thought I would have a small Montessori classroom in our home and do it that way. I even set said classroom up and bought an expensive curriculum. Isabel and I sat down to do some of the first lessons and it became clear very quickly that the Montessori style of teaching was not going to fit our family (some things in theory are way different in practice).

I began reading about unschooling in 2011 and it resonated with all that I believe yet had not yet been able or brave enough to practice (I had been working with young children in preschools and tutoring center situations prior to being a mom). I began deschooling myself and talking about the concept with my husband. We put some things into practice in a “testing” type fashion. In 2012 I began to implement more unschooling concepts into our lifestyle yet still in a “on the fence” fashion. It had been about a year since I had read Sandra Dodd’s “Big Book of Unschooling” and I picked it up again. To my surprise and pleasure, some of the concepts that went right over my head the last time I read them now made sense and some of them I even “got”.

At the beginning of this year, I chose to unschool. It is a practice similar to how I see my yoga practice. I know and have experienced the magical benefits. I am just past the beginning steps and am determined to continue on the path, even through the unknown, uncertainty and angst that shows up. I trust those that have followed the unschooling path before me and I am trusting the human spirits of my girls.

Isabel (5 years old) loves her mommy, daddy, her cat, her dog, her pigs, her chickens, her bees, her geese, her sister and her grandma. She likes to run. She likes zebras because of the stripes and giraffes because of their long necks and their long tongues. She likes exercising, such as jumping and skipping. She likes to play Barbies. She likes to help people cook. She likes to take pictures, too!

Clara (4 years old) likes to play house and princess, watch princess movies, jump, watch Winx Club and Bubble Gumpy. She likes to eat strawberries, apples, pears, bananas and sweet things like cake, ice cream and chocolate covered berries. She likes to dance like ballerinas and princesses. She likes to hold our baby chickies and visit our piggies. She wants the animals to grow big and strong like their moms and dads. She also likes her pretty dresses and her party dress.

We are looking forward to the Always Learning Live weekend in front of us!

They didn't mention cheese curd. I guess it's not exclusively in Minnesota, but if you're not from that part of the country and you're in a lunch place and one of the options is "cheese curd," try it. But don't buy it from a drive-through and leave before tasting it, because you might need more if there are many people in the car.

Melissa Yatzeck hasn't sent a bio yet, but I'll add a link below to one from about a year and a half ago. Add that much age to each child, if you would like to consider this:

My husband and I would be very appreciative if we could find some teens to help keep an eye on our children, just during the speaker sessions. Our seven year old, Mary, is very social and independent and will probably quickly make new friends and find things to play with them; she won't require close supervision. My four year old, Joey, is a little shy at first, but warms up after a little while. Mary and Joey both love Minecraft and we will be bringing along two iPads they can use, and possibly a laptop. I know at the last conference there were several kids playing in an adjoining room, and if that is happening again they would likely happily join in on that. Our two year old, Lily, requires close, constant supervision though, and it would be most helpful to find someone willing to play with her during those times. It is also possible she might nap during afternoon sessions. We would be comfortable having someone (or two, or three!) watch the kids either in our hotel room, or in the adjoining room for kids.

Today is the last day to get a hotel room at the group rate, so if you were stalling, DO IT!

Alex has been tirelessly negotiating to get us the best arrangement, and I'm grateful to her for that. Something we were told, though, is not happening as we expected, so... for Thursday night the water park won't be open. I'm sorry.

Those of you who are in the hotel Thursday night, though, should find me, Alex or Jill somewhere in the common area. We will have the name badges and registration sheet, and we will find room to sit and talk or play and meet each other.

Thursday might be a good night to sleep early. It might be the last chance.

Monday, April 15, 2013

Zoe (15) and I (Chris, 48) are thrilled to have the 2013 MN Always Learning Live Symposium hosted so close to our home. We're from West Des Moines, Iowa and it's just a little over a four hour's drive away!

We have attended two Live and Learn Conferences (St. Louis & Albuquerque,) Sandra's 2009 Santa Fe Symposium, the 2010 Life is Good Conference in Vancouver, WA and the 2011 ALL Symposium in Albuquerque. We enjoy these gatherings for stoking our unschooling fires and for the camaraderie of fellow unschoolers. Rick will be on his Annual Brothers Canoe Trip in northeast Iowa and Zach (22) will be attending his classes at University of Iowa in Iowa City. We'll be leaving our new puppy behind to be cared for by trusted family and professionals.

Our family has always homeschooled and we gradually moved from using an eclectic approach to full-on radical unschooling by the time Zach was 12 years old. Now, Zach is a senior in college majoring in History and German and he will be spending an extra year of undergraduate study in Freiburg, Germany beginning in August.

Zoe loves singing, playing video games, drawing, dancing and reading fantasy novels. She's busy most weeks with church choir, church youth group, dance lessons and skypeing with her friends across the continent. She's looking forward to getting a job this summer, traveling to Italy and Germany with her father and me in September and getting her driver's license in November!

I have many irons in the fire at any given time. I work part-time for Pearson VUE as a test administrator, I have provided freelance bookkeeping services to small corporations for the last 22 years and, as a licensed teacher, I help other homeschoolers in Iowa by serving as their supervising teacher. I enjoy reading and doing all things on the internet—keeping up with technology, current events, politics and social networking.

We are fortunate that Rick's commercial photography business can be operated out of our home so that between the two of us, there is almost always a parent home and available to hang out, talk, drive, prepare food and host social events. We're a stay-at-home team! Rick also enjoys bicycle touring (his goal is to ride border-to-border across each state—this summer he'll be riding across Oregon!) playing volleyball, watching football and spending time with his large family of origin.

Sunday, April 14, 2013

The schedule page had a mysterious corruption, and the format wouldn't be still. Two days of messing around with it on Word and on my webpage to get the html to settle (without retyping the whole thing)... and changing the blog template... and here it is:

Hello from Duluth! Living in northern MN, we feel lucky to be able to enjoy both city life and wilderness fun, as both are close by. Alexander (15) has never been to school, and we’ve been on the unschooling path for many years now.

Deanna’s former life included working as a speech/language therapist and a massage/bodywork therapist. Her current life includes exploring with Alexander & husband John, cooking, gardening, knitting, hiking, and a bit of yoga. An information junkie, books and her iPad are often close by.

Alexander has long enjoyed gaming and has met some truly awesome friends on the Unschooling Gamers group. He dove deep into computers & programming this past year, working a 6-week internship at a local computer shop, and amassing components for building his own computer. One of his biggest passions is the Melbourne Shuffle, a dance form that has brought him contacts from a wide variety of places and some cool background on the history & sub-genres of electronica music; he looks forward to meeting up with some other shufflers and dancin’ till dawn at the Anime Detour Con again this year. (Yep, manga and anime have been long-time passions, as well.)

We will be joined by Kevin, a gaming buddy from CA. His bio states: “I’m Scooty McGee, I mean Kevin. I did ballroom dance for two years. I’m also into gaming, and stand up/improv comedy.”

Thursday, April 11, 2013

The lunch break will be nearly two hours long, so people will have time to go to a grocery store or restaurant. We can't have food in the conference center.

Please read again about the restaurant, and where the nearest stores are. I don't want anyone hungry, especially kids. I wish they would just have let us "monkey platter" it. And their conference catering is way too expensive. :-)